The present invention relates to situations in which services are provided, usually by multiple servers, to numerous persons being served in which the tasks are sequentially identified by a number or otherwise and completion of service is communicated to a person being served, usually a customer, by the task identification. In such systems, it is desirable to have a method of recognizing mishaps or failures that result in unreasonable delay in completion of service for a particular task. Systems are known in which each accepted task is logged in with a time of acceptance so that an arbitrary limit can be set for the time required for completion of the task before it is called to the attention of supervisory personnel.
The method and apparatus of the present invention departs from such known procedure and provides a shorter procedure which, at the same time, tends to adapt to circumstances and avoid excessive indications of problems or mishaps while reliably and promptly catching any oversight or mishap that could cause unreasonable delay in completing service. The method and apparatus according to the invention is particularly adapted to use in high volume pharmacies and that use will be explained for the purpose of illustration. Clearly the system will have many other uses as in fast food establishments and other "while you wait" or fast service environments.
The system according to the invention is particularly useful in large retail stores where there is a pharmacy or other fast service department. In the absence of such a system, customers would take their prescriptions to the pharmacy to be filled and would often wait near the counter until the task of filling the prescription was completed and the customer's name was called.
If the prescription is identified by a number (normally issued in increasing order) it is then possible to provide a display visible from all parts of the retail store, by means of which the customer can be advised of the completion of the task of filling his prescription by display of the assigned number. Such a system has several advantages, not the least of which if that pharmacy customers circulating in the store may find other items to purchase. A potential problem exists in that where several pharmacists are filling prescriptions in a high volume pharmacy, the order in which the prescriptions are ready will not necessarily be sequential. It is possible that a prescription will be mislaid or misdirected or otherwise left unattended to. This would leave one of the customers waiting for an unacceptable amount of time causing an embarrassing situation or a more serious customer relation problem.
The improvement represented by the present method and apparatus is particularly directed to avoiding the situation where a prescription or other task is skipped over, with delay and inconvenience to a customer. The system of the invention recognizes that as long as the prescriptions are filled or the tasks are completed in the same order that they were accepted, one can be assured that only normal and average delays are being encountered. Therefore, close attention need be given only to those tasks where are "skipped", that is to say not completed in the same order in which they were accepted. Furthermore, by monitoring the time from which the task in question was skipped rather than the full time from which it was accepted, allowance is automatically made for the current normal speed of task completion. Therefore, only a short time after being skipped is a significant indication of a problem so that a four or five minute threshold will promptly catch mishaps without causing numerous false indications.
Computerized control apparatus, as well as the method, is disclosed for implementing the system and will be described in detail hereinafter. Clearly the practical way to implement the system is by microcomputer software controlled apparatus although it should be theoretically possible to implement the method using handwritten notes and tally sheets.
Numerous forms of queue monitoring or control systems, customer order processing systems, and the like have been proposed having generally similar objectives, but they do not suggest or disclose the apparatus and method of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,163 to Yehuda shows a system for monitoring the combined waiting and service time for customers in a single queue with multiple service clerks scenario. The system monitors every customer transaction to establish the total time it takes for the customer to get to a service representative through the use of a card dispenser at the end of the queue and a card reader at each service station. This system differs from the McCullough invention in that it does not monitor the service sequence to determine when a customer has been skipped; does not notify an operator when a skipped customer occurs; and the Yehuda invention times the customer waiting period before actually being serviced while the McCullough invention only times the service delay after a customer order is processed out of sequence.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,835 to Dextraze et al. discloses a system for monitoring the combined waiting time for customers in a single queue with multiple service clerks scenario. The system monitors every customer transaction to establish the total time it takes for the customer to get through the queue and be fully serviced. It does this through a sensor at the end of the queue and sensors located at each service station. The main advantage over the Yehuda invention is that this invention also times the service time at each teller. This system differs from the McCullough invention in that it does not monitor the service sequence to determine when a customer has been skipped; does not notify an operator when a skipped customer occurs; and the McCullough invention specifically times those customers that have been skipped, while the Dextraze invention times all customers within the queue; and the McCullough invention specifically times the extended service time for a customer after being skipped, whereas the Dextraze invention times the total service time for a customer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,107 to Nelson et al. shows a system designed to monitor the entry and exit of customers to determine the number of customers within a store. It then uses this information to predict the appropriate number of service personnel at a future time. This allows the store to establish an appropriate balance between clerk efficiency and customer service. This system differs from McCullough in that Nelson monitors the customer entry and exit rates for the store, measuring shopping time, line-waiting time, and service time; McCullough specifically monitors excess service time for skipped customers; Nelson uses pre-established customer and service characteristics to predict future events, while McCullough directly monitors the extended service times; Nelson monitors customer time within the store while McCullough specifically monitors excess service time and Nelson does not monitor the customer service sequence for skipped customers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,097 to Fuyama et al. discloses a system for servicing of customers in a fast-food type restaurant environment. The system sequentially controls the processing of customers through the system and gives an efficient method for the processing of food orders. While this system monitors the customer total service time and alerts by a blinking light when the service time exceeds a preset limit, it differs from McCullough in that Fuyama monitors the entire customer service time while McCullough specifically monitors service time after a customer has been skipped.
Fuyama allows for the recall of mistakenly deleted orders and the correction of order item entries while McCullough allows for the deletion of an incorrect entry and correction of the number sequence; Fuyama displays the total customer service time to the operators on every order and can blink the service time when an excessive amount of time has lapsed while McCullough only displays the customer number after the skipped service time has surpassed a preset maximum allowable waiting period.
To summarize the above comments none of these prior systems monitor the system to determine skipped customers; have a method for displaying completed orders ready for pickup; use a method for only monitoring those customer situations which are outside of the "norm." All of these systems monitor every customer's time period.
A prior McCullough U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,774 is the basis for a commercial pharmacy customer call system in use since 1993 which provides discreet paging by numerical display, but has no customer service monitoring features.